NME’s top 20 songs of the past 15 years (really?)

These are all great songs, but there is definitely room for skepticism. There are too many alternatives to mention (though I will mention some in a second), but to start, can you even say that Paranoid Android is the best Radiohead song of the past 15 years? What about half of the tracks off the Kid A album (Idioteque, National Anthem, Everything in its Right Place), There There, Karma Police, Pyramid Song, etc.?

Other songs could have included (I realize most of the following seem unbearably irritating at this point, but it isn’t any of their faults that their music’s been overplayed): Rage Against the Machine’s Testify, more Arcade Fire (wake up, We used to wait, etc.), more Outkast (B.O.B., Ms.Jackson), RHCP’s Californication, Kanye West, Eminem, more Amy Winehouse (Valarie, tears dry on their own, you know I’m no good), more Strokes (Someday, Heart in a cage, Juicebox), Fatboy Slim, more The White Stripes, The Beastie Boys.

I could go on and on, but I guess all that proves is how difficult it is to come up with the 20 best from a period crowded with different genres and people that demand respect (often for good reason). Everything considered (including the fact that this is a British publication), this is a decent collection of music that, if anything, reflects the diversity of its time.